For the love of Things

It feels like I have but I probably haven’t tried every piece of GTD (Getting Things Done), task management or ‘sort your life out now’ software out there. A while back before it was in full release I started using Things. At the time it wasn’t linked to the iPhone and was a very basic form of just managing tasks. At the time it slotted nicely as for me so many other applications have quite frankly been over the top. I’m a simple girl I guess, I like to have an easy system to manage my tasks that fits in with my life easily. Things turned out to do just this.

Syncing is the way to ease

Whilst I was using the desktop version of Things this worked well but over time I was turning more and more to using my iPhone as my ‘offline’ device. I carry it with me everywhere and even use it as my alarm. I don’t have computers in my bedroom (I like to have a non technology space where I can just sleep) and I’m one of those ‘brain dump’ at night kind of people – always seems just as I’m going to sleep I get ideas I just have to get down. I’ve lost count of the amount of times something to do or the like has popped into my head just before I go to bed. I was using ical for this but it didn’t match my desktop environment of my now Things dependency. Enter the Things iPhone application. I’ve been using this now for a while and it syncs across the key environments I work in perfectly. I’m able to neatly control my tasks and all with the same easy and interface on both – a possibly perfect world.

Lazy task management is the only way it should be

Through my journey with using other task managers often the learning curve to even get started seems not worth the effort. I want to manage my tasks because I’ve got a lot on or need to simplify my life… so why should it be so complicated? Things is perfect in this sense. I can complicate with tags, projects and areas or as is the case often with my Things set up I can simply have a set list of tasks to do today, next or schedule. I love the next section which allows me to have a dumping ground for if by some fluke of nature I end up clearing my tasks for the day. Things to me is a perfect illustration of a complex idea done simply. You can make it as complex as you want which to me is another attraction of this application – it doesn’t have a learning curve and doesn’t penalise you for just wanting a simple list. Should you delve deeper there are more complex variations but on the surface you can just start it and get going straight away with no set up at all.

The way I use Things now is to at night just before down time set up the tasks for the next day and once a week on Sunday for the week. As I progress through the day I can add to this list, but it means I start every morning with a nice clear list to follow and work through. I can get up in the morning sync my iPhone Things application and get straight down to it. I’d love if this process was more automatic but it does work well even though I have to have Things open on my iPhone to get the sync working. Things fits perfectly in my schedule and I’m so happy to have finally settle on a single package that does it all for me in the simple ease Things does. It only goes to prove the old theory of the simplest is often the best.